One Media Group iP, the music and audio digital rights acquirer, has appointed Yellow Jersey as its financial PR adviser with effect from 1 February.

The account will be managed by Dominic Barretto, Philip Ranger and Kelsey Traynor.

One Media iP is a B2B and B2C digital content provider, exploiting intellectual property rights around music and video. The Group specialises in acquiring and repackaging nostalgic music and TV programmes from recordings made over the last 90 years. The Group operates from its offices at Pinewood Studios and delivers its digital music and video content via aggregators to over 600 online digital stores such as iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and YouTube. Consumers download or stream the content via PCs, smart phones, internet-enabled radios and music players and Smart TVs.

One Media focuses on music performed by well-known artists or songs from every genre, including; pop, rock, reggae, R&B, children's music, karaoke, jazz, soul, blues, rap, hip-hop, gospel, world-music, plus stand-up comedy, spoken-word and over 1,000 hours of classical music. The Group does not invest in new bands or untested music.

Chatsworth Communications has been appointed to advise the FX trading platform ParFX and CLS Bank, which manages FX transactions in excess of USD 4.47 trillion a day.

ParFX is owned by interdealer broker Tradition and is seeking to build its profile and address the lack of transparency and fairness in foreign exchange trading and break the existing market duopoly held by ICAP and Thompson Reuters.

CLS Bank manages FX transactions in excess of USD 4.47 trillion a day, with a drive to raise £160 million to ensure compliance with global financial regulation. It was designated a ‘systemically important institution’ by the US Federal Reserve and is owned by a consortium of the world's leading financial institutions.

FX is the world’s largest and most liquid market, with average daily traded volumes growing year on year to over USD 5.3 trillion per day.

Chatsworth also has FXCM, the world’s largest retail FX broker, amongst its clients, in addition to aggregator FX MarketFactory, and FX options specialists SD.

“We are proud that Chatsworth is unrivalled as an agency in our knowledge of FX, the largest and most liquid market in the world," explained Nick Murray-Leslie, CEO, Chatsworth Communications. "We have worked for nearly a decade to amass our experience, expertise and knowledge of the complex technology, infrastructure and regulatory issues affecting FX trading institutions and technology providers."

Chatsworth is headquartered in Chancery Lane, London, and was founded in 2004. The 10-strong team specialises in business-to business communications and media relations across the financial services, technology, construction, transport and energy sectors.

The foreign exchange market is the most liquid financial market in the world. Traders include large banks, central banks, institutional investors, currency speculators, corporations, governments, other financial institutions, and retail investors.

FX trading has long been dominated by two platforms – ICAP-owned EBS and Thomson Reuters – both of whom have suffered from declining volumes and dwindling revenues in recent months.

Last year, ICAP was dragged into the Libor scandal and fined £55 million, while its daily FX trading volumes have dropped from highs of USD 274 billion a day to under $80 billion.

Meanwhile, rival FX broker Thomson Reuters has also suffered from lower volumes and recently announced more than 5,000 job losses this year in a bid to cut costs.

Murray-Leslie added: “The FX industry is set to come under increased scrutiny over the coming months which presents a unique opportunity for institutions to differentiate themselves by their commitment to ensuring a fair and orderly FX marketplace.”

Prosek Partners has been appointed the UK public relations adviser to Janus Capital International, the London based international arm of Janus Capital Group, the global investment manager.

Janus Capital is a $167 billion institutional and retail asset manager, offering investment strategies across equity, fixed income and alternative asset classes. The PR mandate – addressing European, as well as UK, activities – was awarded following a competitive tendering process.

Janus Capital Group serves institutional and retail clients across the US, Europe and Asia through a range of investment disciplines, comprising fundamental and research-driven equity strategies, quantitative equity strategies, fixed income and alternative strategies, as well as classic value investment through independent subsidiary, Perkins Investment Management LLC.

“As a top-tier investment manager with a sophisticated communications requirement, Janus is an exact representation of Prosek’s growing client base in the UK. The firm has an important story to tell both its institutional and wholesale customers requiring a deep understanding of its myriad offerings with delivery across multiple channels – this is a story we are well equipped to amplify.” said Andrew Waterworth, managing director, Prosek Partners.

The account will be run by Fred Duff Gordon, recently appointed associate director at Prosek Partners in London.

“Having undertaken a thorough tender process to identify a stand-out PR agency to partner with Janus in the UK and Europe, we were impressed with Prosek’s deep understanding of our markets, its strategic recommendations for achieving the firm’s commercial objectives, and the team’s clear enthusiasm for the task in hand,” explained Nigel Austin, EMEA chief operating officer of Janus Capital International.

The Moscow-based public relations and social media consultancy Buman Media, has hired advisory firm Michael Murphy to provide strategic counsel.

Headed by the former Grayling CEO Michael Murphy, the firm will provide Buman Media with support to grow and develop its offering and become better known internationally.

"The need for all businesses to become social and the growing complexity of stakeholder engagement is opening up new opportunities for marketing services firms. Buman Media has quickly established an enviable reputation in the market and we hope that with our help we can accelerate its growth and success," said Michael Murphy.

"We are confident that our partnership will help our firm to meet its core business objectives more effectively," said Natalia Bucelnikova, managing director of Buman Media.

Down at the Social has been called in to promote Manchester’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) festival, now in its 24th year.

The agency has been briefed to raise awareness of the festival both regionally and nationally.

The team will promote the festival’s calendar of events, encourage ticket sales for the weekend in August and communicate key messages throughout the year.

Mark Fletcher, director of Manchester Pride, said: "Manchester Pride hasn’t employed a PR agency for several years but we felt that now was the time to find a team to promote everything that we will be doing in 2014, from our Be Involved campaign to the fundraising dinner under the wings of Concorde at Manchester Airport. They will be instrumental in enabling us to work towards greater transparency in all our activities.

"From our first meeting we could see that Down at the Social has the contacts, creativity and passion to join us in keeping Manchester Pride on top. The team, led by Daisy Whitehouse [Down at the Social MD], has strong destination credentials working with some of the city’s most successful brands and we look forward to seeing the magic they will undoubtedly bring to our campaigns."

Daisy said: "There's much more to Manchester Pride than the Big Weekend and, since 2003, the festival has grown to include Pride Fringe which encompasses a series of art, culture, heritage, debate, sport, music and film events celebrating the great diversity of the LGBT community.

"Our role is to promote each and every part of the festival throughout the year helping the team to work towards their 2014 objectives and raise as much money as possible for the organisations they continue to support.

"The festival is facing several challenges this year and we are confident that the results-driven campaign we have devised will help to make a difference and show what a fantastic organisation Manchester Pride is."

Zeno Group has appointed Grayling’s Hannah Williams as director of its UK tech practice.

In the UK, Hannah will work on existing clients and drive new business. Zeno’s tech clients around the world include BT, Intel, McAfee, Micron and Verifone, serviced by tech teams based in London and offices across Asia and in Silicon Valley.

Hannah previously ran Grayling’s tech team in the UK and also led business development. She has spent more than a decade in tech PR, nearly nine years at Grayling and its predecessor Trimedia, and has worked on a portfolio of clients including COLT Telecom, Logica, MSN, PayPal, Skype and Xerox.

She will report to Zeno Europe MD Steve Earl.

Steve said: "Hannah’s breadth of tech experience and connections across the industry make her an enviable capture. She also has the gutsy personality and pragmatic, progressive attitude that have seen her deliver persistent client success across regular, social and branded media."

Gorkana catches up with the team at Red on merging the print and digital teams, their very vocal readers and why PRs are so important.

With a circulation of 220,000, Red is the UK's leading luxury lifestyle magazine with a continued focus on quality content that has attracted a loyal subscriber base and has a growing online audience to the award-winning redonline, which engages more than 450,000 unique visitors each month.

Saska Graville, deputy editor

Saska has been at Red for eight years. Before that she spent 10 years in Australia where roles included features editor on one of the Sunday nationals and editor of New Woman. Before that, she worked on various teen mags in the UK.

Pip McCormac, lifestyle director

Pip has been at Red for 18 months. Before that, he was at The Sunday Times Style for five years and was also at GRAZIA.

Laura Fantacci, fashion editor

Laura started her career at YOU magazine in the fashion cupboard and worked her way up. She has done stints and titles including VOGUE, InStyle and Happy Magazine. She joined Red six years ago.

Sarah Tomczak, features director

Sarah was previously assistant editor and fashion director at the Daily Mail’s Life & Style supplement, before joining Red in August last year.

The Red brand

Saska said PRs need to be thinking about the Red platform as a whole, not just the magazine. She said 2014 would be a big year for Red as the print and digital teams merge.

There are also plans to expand Red's networking events. There are eight Red Network events taking place this year. Saska wants to hear from PRs on ideas for future events.

PRs need to think about the Red universe and how their client/brand would fit the platform as a whole. There are opportunities with events, in the magazine and online.

The team all agreed that PRs are very important in helping them do their jobs.

The magazine and its readers

As a whole, content is an even mix, although there are certain specials that go out throughout the year. There are living specials in May and December, and fashion specials in March and April and September and October.

The typical Red reader is a professional woman in her 30s and 40s, in a relationship, probably has youngish children and has a disposable income. She’s smart, intelligent, career and family orientated, who wants to find out about products that are luxurious and informative. Red readers are very vocal and the team gets lots of balanced feedback on every issue published.

The tone of the magazine has changed slightly over the years, becoming more urban and sophisticated.

Deadlines

The team works around three months in advance. Sarah is starting to work out ideas for the June issue. Laura will have Christmas content worked out in July. Pitching Christmas ideas after July is too late.

While the team would like to meet up with PRs more often, there is no longer as much time to get out of the office and desk visits are not convenient. Locations for press day events are key for attracting members of the team (sometimes the team goes to 35 press days in one day). If a press event is half way down the King’s Road, Pip simply won’t go. If it’s within walking distance of the office, there’s a much bigger chance.

PRs should tailor their pitches as much as possible. If one of the team gets a suggestion about where it can fit in the magazine or on the web site, there’s a better chance of a response. The team is happy to be pitched to via Twitter.

Fashion

Laura has around 13 to 16 pages to fill in an average issue.

Products fly off the shelves when they are featured in Red. At one point, the team had an M&S code for a dress on sale, which ended up having to be offered as a waiting list because so many readers wanted to buy it.

Laura is keen not to make the Red reader feel alienated by the products she write about, so it’s important to cover everything from cheaper to more expensive. Before covering something which is more expensive side, she will ask how much readers would be willing to invest in something that is going to have a long life in the wardrobe.

There are four fashion specials each year (March/April and September/October) which focus on what the trends are going to be for the new season. The March issue tends to be more fashion, while the April will focus on accessories. The specials are all about telling readers what they should be buying.

Fashion product imagery is done in-house to fit with the Red mantra.

Laura has recently created an Instagram account, which is growing and includes competitions. It’s being used to promote the brand and engage with the reader to give a behind the scenes look at Red.

Relationships with PRs are very important for Laura. She tends to contact PRs in the first place, tell them about the story she’s working on and ask if they have relevant products. She also works from look books and will pick what she wants called in. She doesn’t like to be sent dozens of samples that are irrelevant to what she’s working on.

Lifestyle

Pip looks after all interiors and food for the magazine and online. He has around 20 pages to fill each month. The team has an unofficial strap line for the magazine: the sun always shines in Red, which means Pip is always looking for something that has a bit of sparkle and will excite readers. Products don’t necessarily need to be expensive but they do have to be easy to apply.

He’s happy to receive images from PRs as long as they fit with the magazine. Pip likes to receive images via email and he reads every one that that comes through. He’s not keen on being contacted by phone.

A product that feels modern and is easy to be applied to someone’s life will always prove a winner. Red is not a specialist magazine that looks into the nuts and bolts of changing rooms.

Features

Sarah wants a balance of features in Red; features that are newsy and relevant as well as snippets that will offer something new and surprising for readers. Research-based stories also have the opportunity to make it online, when they might not fit into the magazine. Surveys need to have a minimum of 2,000 respondents.

The perfect feature?

Sarah has around 35 pages to fill every month.

Because content is such a mix, there is no one perfect Red feature. Some will feel instantly relevant to the reader and others will be more "out there" and thought provoking. There is also a large mix of first-person memoirs, which is something Sarah thinks shapes the voice and tone of the magazine. She’s always looking for people who can be very honest and real, as well as relatable.

There are also trend pieces, for example, a recent one on why the Women’s Institute is cool again, and more whimsical features, on topics like Soul Cycling, a new spinning class that claims to cleanse the soul.

Sarah likes to be pitched to via email. If she likes what she reads, she will call or email back quite quickly, even if it’s to say she will pick it up the following week.

Online

Magazine content is not replicated on the web site. The team believes reading an actual magazine appeals to the Red reader. There are many online pieces that will complement magazine content, as well as standalone stories on redonline.

PRs should make their clients aware of the reach that online now gives a story. While many brands still believe a story about them is better in print, an online story can be seen by 50,000 people instantly when tweeted out.

Food is one of the most popular channels for redonline. The number one search term is chicken dinners. A lot of recipes are included and there are opportunities for PRs to get involved.

Celebrities

Celebrities that resonate with Red readers are women that they can relate to in some way, not just an anonymous Hollywood name. They need to have a story and "an air of intelligence". Readers want to see someone on the cover they want to be – taking on Red’s mantra: 'by women like you, for women like you'.

Travel

Saska looks after Red’s travel pages. The best way to send over travel ideas is through travel@redmagazine.co.uk.

Health and fitness

Health director Bridget Moss looks after the magazine’s Self section, which is one of the most popular parts of Red. There are plans to increase the fitness section in the coming months.

Books

Books are reviewed by literary editor Viv Groskop on Red’s Scene pages. The pages are edited by features writer Marisa Bate, who is the conduit to Viv. The team is always looking for new writers to feature in the magazine. While Red doesn’t run book excerpts, authors can write a piece for the magazine.

The team is also working with the Bath Literature Festival this year, with Red putting on various events.

Charities

Red is happy to hear from charities and has worked in partnership with many of them. However, there is a fine line the team does not want to cross where people read Red and feel guilty. Case studies can often work well in this instance.

Kids

Red does not really feature children’s products as readers see the magazine as a break from their daily life. However there is a channel for this on redonline. There is also a new blog, Inspired Kids by stylist Ashlyn Gibson, on the site, which is her own personal take on kid’s-related stories. PRs can get in contact via Sarah.

Claire Mason, Man Bites Dog's managing director, caught up with Gorkana recently to discuss the concept of thought leadership as a marketing discipline and the challenges facing CMOs in using it to differentiate their professional service firms.

Why has thought leadership always been considered such an important part of the marketing mix for professional services firms?

As our Follow The Leader research shows, CMOs consider thought leadership to be the most effective way their firm can demonstrate expertise. Interestingly, the majority of marketers also believe that thought leaders are more likely to become market leaders.

Professional services firms can no longer differentiate on service, leaders are waking up to the fact that ideas are the only source of differentiation. We are starting to see the relationship-led sale being enhanced by more scalable ideas-led selling.

Thought leadership used to be about demonstrating competency, today four out of five CMOs believe that the most important driver of their thought leadership is fulfilling clients’ expectations that firms will be thought leaders and produce insightful content as a matter of course. Service is a given. Now market intelligence and insight come as standard too.

What stood out for you most in your recent survey of heads of marketing at professional services firms on their attitudes to thought leadership?

Despite the increasing strategic importance of thought leadership and a tripling in thought leadership investment, there is an epidemic of thought followership amongst professional services firms. Three-quarters of CMOs complain that their firm jumps on the bandwagon rather than setting the agenda and nine out of ten marketers complain that partners force them to cover the same topics as everyone else.

The fact that CMOs themselves admit that 65% of their so-called thought leadership output is worthless thought followership is remarkable.

Despite marketing’s ascent within professional services firms, the vast majority of CMOs believe they still do not have the power and autonomy to drive innovative programmes through their organisations. There is a tremendous opportunity for firms willing to be original to take pole position in the thought leadership stakes – but for this to happen CMOs need to be accorded the respect they deserve.

It’s a study you’ve conducted in the past. What’s changed since you last did it?

While thought leadership has become significantly more important, and now represents almost a quarter of marketing expenditure, quality and impact has reduced and poor practice has become more prevalent. In short, increased interest in thought leadership has simply resulted in more people doing it badly.

How do you define thought leadership to your clients? Do you think this survey constitutes thought leadership?

Like beauty, thought leadership is in the eye of the beholder – it’s an outcome not a tactic. You can’t simply declare yourself a thought leader, the audience decides.

We would consider thought leadership for Man Bites Dog to be the sum total of our thinking, activity and conversations. Thought leadership should never be seen as just a piece of content or something to “do” alongside marketing activities. Our latest Follow the Leader study is one facet of our thinking that we’re keen to share – we’d love to know what readers think!

**Your research identifies two key contradictions within professional services firms to their approach to thought leadership.

First, the cultural challenge: “nearly three quarters of CMOs admit they are too close to the coal face to spot emerging issues,” and the same proportion believe “their firm is too concerned about being seen to be negative or critical to say anything meaningful.” Do you think professional services firms are being honest with themselves about how to approach thought leadership?**

We talk a lot about ROI in terms of “Return on Ideas”. It’s incumbent on marketers to help their stakeholders understand that a marketing dollar invested in genuine thought leadership will deliver exponentially greater impact than a marketing dollar invested in thought followership. Like all forms of leadership, thought leadership demands courage. It’s about creating the right culture, process and team for ideas to flourish and gaining the balance between bringing in new ideas from fresh external suppliers, and not outsourcing your thinking wholesale. Thought leaders don’t sit on the fence, companies need to adopt a firm position. Ensuring that insight and opinion is based on robust data is one way to help risk averse firms have the courage of their convictions.

Second, commercial self-interest: “48% of firms remain reluctant to share their intellectual property”. Do you make a distinction between intellectual property and thought leadership and how would you counsel a firm that has issues about going public with its ideas?

You have to give to get – sharing your thinking is the best way to demonstrate the quality of your capability. Professional services firms are people businesses, IP is the golden egg that demonstrates the quality of what the golden goose can do for you. And if you want to be a thought leader, you should be first to share your view, before the world catches up.

For the cautious, there’s a positive middle way between jealously guarding your secret sauce and giving away the crown jewels.

Firstly, benchmarking-based content, for example examining how firms perform in the context of a particular issue, can be tremendously high impact. You can use the aggregate data to generate IP and a big picture story, then keep back data on individual firms which you can share with them in a bespoke benchmarking conversation. Meeting generation gold dust.

Secondly, if a firm has developed exciting new IP, it’s possible either to reveal this partially, or to use the IP to provide insight and inspiration for a campaign that generates demand for the IP – creating impact by making the diagnosis rather than prescribing the solution.

Is too much thought leadership in professional services just an attempt to put gloss on a survey translated into a report? Is the real case for a rethink on the way thought leadership is communicated?

Thought leadership, which is an outcome, has been reduced to the level of a piece of content on the content treadmill. Too much so-called thought leadership consists of a logo added to a third party report, lacking all alignment to the firm and its proposition.

The clue’s in the name – thought leadership starts with an original thought – not enough time is devoted to this critical stage in the process. However, there is real value in taking this thought to market by testing and evidencing it – research has an important role to play in validation and turns “soft” opinion into evidence-based insight.

We are seeing a trend towards investment in much larger programmes that enable firms to evolve an area of insight over the long term, investing in thinking and harnessing all communication channels to activate it.

You suggest marketers should use William Morris as a guide: “nothing in your communications strategy should be considered if it isn’t both beautiful and useful.” The arts & crafts movement ostensibly looks back on the skills of the past. Shouldn’t thought leadership lean on Picasso for inspiration and try and see the world anew?

Picasso is a great example of an artist who can provide inspiration for thought leadership. Too much so-called thought leadership is thought followership, jumping on the bandwagon of so-called “topical themes” – Gartner’s classic technology Hype Cycle is a really good illustration of this phenomena. Ideally thought leadership should be pre-topical – as soon as everyone else is talking about it it’s old news – thought leadership should provide a genuinely new perspective.

William Morris looked to the past but was also hugely innovative from a technical perspective. What I particularly like about the beautiful and useful mantra is how well this reflects what thought leadership can achieve. I love the beauty and elegance of a big idea which has the power to align disparate practice areas, sectors and target audiences, enabling firms to be greater than the sum of their parts. Nothing beats the eureka moment when you know you’ve cracked it. A central concept is the critical ingredient required to focus an organisation and its stakeholders on a compelling and differentiating goal.

Usefulness is about being bold enough to share genuinely new, actionable insight. The most useful thought leadership starts outside-in, anticipating the macro issues that move markets and transform industries. Marketers are starting to think more about how they can be genuinely useful to their clients and society at large. How can our intelligence help you to be better? That’s the real challenge for thought leadership now.

At a recent Gorkana Breakfast, The Economist’s Industry Editor, Simon Wright, explained how articles are commissioned, the collaborative approach to the newspaper’s editing, and how its digital strategy is aimed at delivering a ‘lean forward’ as well as a ‘lean back’ experience.

Simon Wright has recently been appointed Industry Editor. Since joining in 1989 his roles have included stints as the Letters Editor, World This Week Editor and writing about business and finance for economist.com, Deputy News Editor for the paper’s website and most recently as Energy and Commodities Correspondent. In his current role he covers the automotive, aerospace, shipping, manufacturing and infrastructure sectors.

The Economist is a newspaper phenomenon. In just over ten years it has doubled its circulation to almost 1.6m. Half of the readers of the 164 year old publication are now in North America, although the UK market still has the highest per capita readership. “ Although physically produced in London our outlook is broad and global,” said Simon.

Worldwide circulation (Jan-Jun 2013):

North America - 895,627

UK – 218, 092

Continental Europe – 242,957

Asia/Pacific – 153,188

The Economist’s approach

The Economist has an editorial staff of 150 around the world, of which 90 of those are journalists, with 50 or 60 based in London.

Simon explained that the Economist’s editorial value is to distil events and give a succinct analysis of weekly news to the reader. It does not necessarily include the biggest stories of the news agenda, and often covers off beat news too. The philosophy is to deliver a curated and customised take on the week, selecting what The Economist reader needs to know to ensure it is a good use of the reader’s time.

“We are a newspaper in that we cover the news events of the week. But we don’t just report those events, the thing that The Economist does and where the value is added is we analyse those events, tell you why they matter and give you our opinion. We do a bit of thinking for the reader.”

The Economist’s editorial content is largely homogenous across all regions with the exception of Britain which has a larger news section for UK news. However, the newspaper’s front cover can change and the running order of the leaders and country sections are reorganised to cater for the different geographic editions.

Editorial Planning

Just as The Economist hits the newsstands on a Friday each week the editorial schedule starts for the next edition. The Economist’s journalists occupy two floors of 25 St James’ St. The ‘back end’ of the paper - finance, business and science & technology sections - all sit together on the twelfth floor with the foreign desks and other editors on the floor above.

Friday starts with a meeting of the business, finance and science teams meet to discuss ideas before going upstairs for another meeting with the entire editorial team, researchers and graphics editors. At the Friday meetings ideas for leaders will start to be “kicked around” by editors as well as topics for the regular section columns. The long term planning list is discussed too. Nothing is set until a further editor’s meeting on the Monday morning.

Commissioning

Generally the genesis of news gathering is an organic process with an emphasis on bottom up news reporting and journalists coming to meetings with ideas. Almost anyone can write for a section of the newspaper, if they have an editorial “bee in their bonnet.” Editors also commission stories for journalists to write as well as there being set pieces in the news calendar, like major trade events.

Simon’s industry beat sits within the business section but he often writes for the UK section too. It is not uncommon for Economist journalists to be pulled between country and the business & finance elements of the editorial matrix – in his previous role as Energy Correspondent the political nature of energy meant that he often wrote for the country sections.

There are a number of stringers on The Economist’s books round the globe for specialist areas or topics. Perhaps one business story a week will be commissioned from a stringer but these will be heavily rewritten and edited to The Economist’s style in London.

Each Economist article is a highly collaborative affair. “If I write a piece it will be discussed quite thoroughly not only with the Business Editor but other people as well. Also we have a free market ethos which permeates the paper and that is maintained by rigorous editing.” All articles pass up the chain of command of section editors, business editor and finally on to the editor. “We don’t have sub-editors at The Economist which is unusual; the chief sub-editor is the Editor himself. There are other people who’ll be interested and who’ll read it. There will be a lot of input into your pieces so they are a product of the institution rather than the individual.” It is this philosophy that underpins the newspaper’s traditional policy of not publishing bylines.

Briefing section

The one part of the paper that does not sit within any of the departmental sections is the Briefing section, a feature article that follows the Leaders and Letters sections each week which typically runs to three pages in length. These tend to be an in depth look into a major new story or are highly researched reports prepared over a number of weeks. Sometimes these will be held back to feature as a cover story and will be accompanied by a leader. This is curated by the Briefings Editor who asks editors for ideas for content before commissioning journalists to write them. The lead time is typically four weeks for a non breaking news item although the last time Simon wrote a briefing it had a gestation of six months as it waited for a cover slot.

Special Reports

Around once a month The Economist will run an in depth special report. There is a long lead time (sometimes around a year) and the reports can be up to between 15,000 and 20,000 words. The special reports are diarised on the Economist’s website and the journalist commissioned to write them can take up to a five week sabbatical to put them together, with two of those weeks typically taken up by travelling. (They differ from traditional Economist articles in that they are bylined).

The Economist’s digital offering

The Economist is available each week through apps for iPad, iPhone, Android, Windows 8, Chrome, BlackBerry and Kindle Fire. These are made to resemble the print edition as closely as possible and the content on the two platforms is identical. One unique feature on the digital Economist is that it is also available as an audio edition with each story read by professional broadcasters.

The Economist.com takes a different approach. Whereas the print and digital editions have been referred to by Economist executives as a “lean back” experience, .com is designed to be “lean forward”. All the content in the magazine is loaded onto the website, but much of the focus in on generating a community through blogs and active comment boards.

Blogs are now extremely well used by The Economist team for both immediately reacting to news and also venting their opinions to its interactive community. The initials of authors are attributed to blogs and there is a feeling that online, where there is less of an editorial filter, it is reasonable to identify the authors.

Simon’s view is that The Economist moved onto the web in a more cautious and measured way than other media outlets and as result has been more successful in charging for content than others. Of The Economists’ 1.6 million subscriptions a week, 100,000 are digital only. A hardcopy subscribers gets access to website too.

The Economist uses Twitter to broadcast information and does have a Facebook following too. Simon added although he does not tweet himself, he and his team do regular monitor Twitter as it is a rich source of news.

How PRs can input to The Economist

Knowing how to send in stories to The Economist is complicated by the fact that the newspaper does not have a newsdesk. There is an Economist media directory - as well as the Gorkana Database – with details of who covers what areas so careful readers should be able to work out the main author of each story. If it is hard to work out who wrote what, people who ring up and ask to talk with the author of a particular article are generally put through.

Everybody has their different preferences on how they like to be approached (and some do not like being approached at all), but Simon prefers to receive his correspondence by email. However, such is volume of email that he receives that it is important to catch his eye through the content of the subject line.

In terms of information Simon puts particular value on receiving research reports and analyst notes as well as the opportunity to speak to senior people within companies. He is keen to get out of the office as much as possible and visit companies and going on site visits. Economist journalists always insist on paying their own way to ensure the editorial integrity of their trips.

Generally he is more interested in writing about big companies, although there is no set size, and he also finds it easier to write about public companies as more information is available. At present he is keen on trying to explode the myth that nothing is made in Britain anymore and he feels British manufacturing could do more to lift its head above the parapet.

On international stories there is no hard or fast rule about whether to go through the local bureau or the business desk so he would not discourage PRs from trying both.

PrettyGreen has hired two new client services directors, GolinHarris’ Ceri Reed and RPM’s Kate Morrison, who will help drive its PR and social division and enhance the agency’s events team respectively.

Ceri (pictured) will oversee PrettyGreen’s comms team alongside group account director Sarah Henderson. She will primarily work on lifestyle accounts Under Armour, smart, Din Dins, Pretty Polly and Magners.

She was previously a freelance director at GolinHarris for much of 2013, where she worked across the Cadbury portfolio and a series of Unilever clients.

In her 12 years in comms, she has also worked with clients including Pepsi, Nike, Puma, P&G, Diageo, Heineken, Sol, Sony Ericsson, Orange and Xbox.

Ceri will report to joint MD Emma Grace and PrettyGreen founder Mark Stringer.

Emma said: "We are so delighted to have Ceri join the PrettyGreen team. Her wealth of experience means she will make an immediate impact to current clients and be truly instrumental in our ambitions for growth."

Ceri said: "PrettyGreen is an energetic agency that works to feed its inquisitive nature, while ignoring the rule book, resulting in unexpected and successful creative campaigns, brand sales and team pride. I’m excited to be joining the company and am looking forward to the challenges ahead.”

Kate has been brought in to oversee PrettyGreen’s Events and Experiential team alongside board director Sian Baker, and will primarily work on the John Lewis, Cadbury and Under Armour accounts.

She was previously group account director at RPM, where she was responsible for a wide portfolio of clients including Heineken, Mondelez, Marks & Spencer and Cancer Research UK.

Kate has 13 years’ experience in events marketing, which includes delivering brand partnerships for Strongbow and Tough Mudder, as well as overseeing the launch of E.ON’s first shop back on the high street in 20 years.

She will also report to Jessica, as well as Sian.

Jessica said: "Kate’s appointment comes at an exciting time for PrettyGreen and we are delighted to have her on board. Her extensive skill set and knowledge will enable her to play an integral role in helping to further grow the business’ events offering and portfolio, whilst ensuring that the team continue to deliver successful and impactful campaigns.”

Kate said: “PrettyGreen has a fantastic mix of PR, event and digital capabilities, which, when brought together, offers a powerful combination to help clients reach both amplification and engagement objectives. That coupled with the chance to head up a young, fun and creative team offered me an opportunity too good to pass up! I can’t wait to help build on the events offering moving forward.”

firstlight has expanded its healthcare offering with the arrival of Paul Gittins as a company director.

Paul’s arrival at firstlight re-establishes the partnership with Pat Pearson that co-founded Red Health at The Red Consultancy.

“I’m delighted to be joining the team at firstlight. The agency has a unique approach to breaking down the traditional barriers between client and consultancy,” said Gittins.

“Our senior team is at the heart of everything we do and our business structure delivers what our clients truly want – a partnership with senior, creative, smart people who help deliver against their business objectives.”

“It’s a really exciting time for us – brand new offices, a growing team of talented people like Paul and some significant new business wins to start the New Year with a bang,” explained Pat Pearson, managing director of healthcare.

Paul, who is a pharmacologist by background, previously worked at The Red Consultancy (Red Health), Ruder Finn, MS&L and Red Door.

Paul can be reached at paul.gittins@firstlightpr.com.

MHP Communications has won the financial PR account for WH Ireland Group plc, the AIM listed wealth management and corporate broking business.

The MHP team of Reg Hoare, Jade Neal and Jamie Ricketts will report to WH Ireland’s Chief Executive Richard Killingbeck, and will provide advice to the Group and its two divisions. WH Ireland has over £2.27bn total funds under management and control and is ranked a top 3 AIM broker and adviser.

“WH Ireland is changing and it’s important that we reinforce that change through an active communications programme; we’re delighted to have appointed MHP to advise us,” explained Richard Killingbeck, chief executive of WH Ireland Group.

Former Deutsche Bank corporate stockbroker Martin Pengelley has joined Tulchan as a senior adviser following his retirement from the bank last month.

At Tulchan his role will be to advise clients on how to build corporate reputation in capital markets.

During Martin's time at Deutsche Bank he has been an adviser to the CEOs, CFOs and other board members of many of its key FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 clients across a wide variety of sectors.

"We are delighted that Martin has decided to join Tulchan as a senior adviser in our Consultant group," explained Tulchan managing partner David Shriver. "There is a clear and growing correlation between a strong performance in the capital markets, corporate reputation and positive media coverage. His long experience of advising some of the UK’s most important companies will add significantly to our advisory capability and the value that we are able to add to our clients. Tulchan has seen strong momentum entering 2014 and we are sure that Martin’s arrival will help us continue that trend”.

From more information contact David Shriver on 020 7353 4200.

Economist Events has appointed FWD to promote the forthcoming Insurance Summit 2014, Insurance – The Next Frontier.

The all day event is being held on the 27th February, at the Dorchester, London. Over 150 senior executives are expected to gather to listen to leading figures in the industry discuss and give opinions on topics including:

• What will the role of insurance be in tomorrow's society?

• What will the insurance business look like in the future?

• What do insurers expect from regulators and vice versa?

• What lessons can the industry learn from emerging markets?

Speakers at the event will include Mark Wilson, CEO, Aviva; Jean Lassignardie, vice-president, Capgemini; Andrew Kendrick, president, ACE European Group and Clement Booth, member of the board of management, Allianz SE.

“We are pleased to be working with FWD for this event," explained Ajla Turkovic, senior marketing manager, Thought Leadership & Events at The Economist Group. "FWD is highly respected in the insurance sector and this event will bring together some of the key players in the industry, including insurers, regulators, policymakers customer representatives and key stakeholders from inside and outside the sector.”

“Economist Events have once again secured an impressive line up of speakers from the heart of the industry," added Michael Gaughan, chief executive of FWD. "As a specialist professional and financial services agency, events of this type really allows us to use our experience and expertise to their full.”

Scotty’s Little Soldiers, a charity that supports the children and families of loved ones lost during military service, has chosen PR and social media agency Wolfstar to help grow its profile across the UK.

The agency, which won the account following a competitive pitch, has been briefed to promote the charity’s work as well as its founder, Nikki Scott.

The team will oversee press activity for the charity, with a focus on raising the profile of its services. Traditional, social and digital campaigns, all tailored to boost awareness amongst potential members and donors, will also be included.

Nikki said: “We are very excited to be joining up with Wolfstar with their considerable experience in the charity sector. Wolfstar brings a great understanding of the work we do at Scotty’s to help bereaved families and we look forward to working with them on several projects in the months to come."

Jon Priestley, head of Wolfstar London, said: "We’re incredibly excited about our new partnership with Scotty’s Little Soldiers, a charity which does so much to give hope and a happier future to children and families bereaved by the loss of a loved one serving in the Armed Forces.

"We are very much looking forward to the charity’s plans for the year ahead and helping them to increase their profile across the UK."

Chris Philipsborn, partner and head of London’s energy practice, has joined the Nuclear Industry Association’s external relations committee.

Previously, Chris (pictured) attended the board of Europe’s biggest nuclear site, Sellafield Ltd, as director of communications and public affairs and served as a non-executive director of the NIA between 2008-9.

Additionally, senior advisor Gareth Davies has been awarded the 2013 Young Generation Network Award for outstanding contribution to the nuclear industry.

As well as being a senior advisor at Kreab Gavin Anderson, Gareth runs a specialist nuclear management consultancy and holds numerous industry body positions, including director of International Nuclear Lawyers Association, and vice chair of the NIA Decommissioning Group.

Ross Gillam, executive associate, has been selected as a communications Officer by the Nuclear Institute, London Branch (NILB) committee.

This volunteer role sees Ross support and advise the NILB with their internal and external communications.

The London Branch is the newest branch of the Nuclear Institute, with the mission “to educate people in London on nuclear power and the nuclear industry and provide the City’s professionals especially those working within the nuclear industry with a platform to share knowledge and experience.”

The UK nuclear practice forms an integral part of Kreab Gavin Anderson’s wider global energy offer.

Cicero Group has appointed James Plaskitt as senior counsel in its UK public affairs practice.

James has nearly 30 years’ experience in politics and government. He was Member of Parliament for Warwick and Leamington from May 1997 to May 2010, during which time he served as a minister at the Department of Work and Pensions and sat on the Treasury Select Committee.

Plaskitt joins Cicero’s UK Public Affairs practice and will help to enhance the businesses’ client offering and achieve its growth targets in the year ahead.

“James brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from the front-line of politics as a former minister and member of the Treasury Select Committee," explained Tom Frackowiak, head of UK public affairs at Cicero Group. "He will add further to the detailed insight Cicero can provide clients on a strategic and day-to-day basis, and I am delighted we have been able to attract someone of James’ quality to the Cicero team.”

“I am delighted to be joining Cicero. They have a market leading public affairs team with a range of prestigious clients," added James. "With EU elections, a Scottish referendum and a General Election just 18 months away, now is a critical time for organisations to set the right public affairs strategy.”

For more information contact Tom.Frackowiak@cicero-group.com.

National law firm Clarke Willmott LLP has re-appointed JBP PR and Parliamentary Affairs following the completion of a tender process.

JBP won the new three year PR contract in a four way pitch.

"JBP impressed us with their plans for further developing our communications and clearly demonstrated an in-depth understanding of our business," explained Philip Allen, Clarke Willmott’s head of business development and marketing. "We believe this will enable the firm to maximise PR opportunities in support of its continued growth throughout the UK.”

Clarke Willmott has six offices nationally and more than 70 partners. Altogether it employs over 450 staff across its offices in Birmingham, Bristol, London, Manchester, Southampton and Taunton. It delivers a wide range of legal services for businesses and private clients.

Citypress has appointed ex-national news journalist Chris Marritt as an account director.

Chris, whose career includes six years in journalism with Press Association and the Daily Mail, also brings eight years’ corporate communications experience.

He joins from Weber Shandwick.

At Citypress, he will lead a number of national financial services and corporate briefs and form part of the agency’s senior reputation advisory team, which provides crisis and issues management support.

"Chris’ journalism and communications expertise is a great asset to the agency and reflects our commitment to both quality editorial content and strategic media consulting,” explained Martin Currie, managing director.

"As well as having a strong reputation for consultancy, Citypress has a rich vein of journalistic experience running throughout the agency," added Chris. "As the demand from clients for outstanding editorial content grows, this is an exciting time to be joining an agency with such a strong heritage of investing in journalistic talent.”

Headquartered in Manchester, Citypress is one of the UK's largest consultancies based outside of London.

Chris can be reached at chris.marritt@citypress.co.uk.

Spafinder Wellness 365, the world’s largest media, marketing and gifting company for the wellness industry, has appointed the Brighter Group to raise its profile in the UK.

The agency has been briefed to promote Spafinder Wellness’ annual activities, including the release of its Global Trends and Wellness report in January and the Spafinder Wellness 365 Readers' Choice Awards in October.

Target media will include consumer, lifestyle and business titles.

The team will also raise the profile of the Spafinder Wellness gift vouchers during key periods including Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Christmas.

John Bevan, Spafinder Wellness MD, said: "Spafinder Wellness is currently only known amongst the spa media in the UK but we are still very much perceived as an American brand, so we are keen to work with Brighter Group to highlight our UK presence in terms of our retail vouchers, corporate wellness schemes and, of course, our website.

“We really feel that the UK is lagging behind Europe and the US when it comes to the way that we perceive spa and wellness and we are therefore keen to become champions for living well 365 days a year."

Spafinder Wellness 365 provides a resource for wellness-related products, services and insight in the marketplace, as well as offering gift vouchers which are available in more than 7,000 stores throughout the UK.